Being the ‘new kid’ at school is hard, but for Tess Novak - who’s moved more times than she can remember - it’s a role she knows by heart. Transferring during senior year means yet another place she’ll eventually leave, more classmates she’ll forget.

Fate, it seems, has other plans.

From the moment Tess is introduced to honor student Drew Martinez, she is convinced she has met him before. But when? Confident and attractive, Drew is exactly the type of ‘rich kid’ Tess’s father hates, and Tess avoids. Thrown together by a class project, their tentative friendship sparks a smoldering attraction. Tess tries to keep Drew at arm’s length, but in weeks they are drawn into a scorching romance.

Fearing her father’s volatile reaction, Tess insists on keeping the relationship a secret. Meanwhile, she begins to uncover the mysterious connection which hearkens back to the half-forgotten days of her dark childhood, a past which appears to be connected to Drew. As each new puzzle piece falls into place, and the threat of discovery increases, Tess must decide whether she wants to keep living a lie, or expose the horrific events which tore Drew out of her life so many years before...

Icarus was a darker book that I have read in a while. Which is good because I like to mix it up and raw books dealing with some of the tougher issues always bring out strong emotions in me. I just like to put that out there so that people can be aware of it up front. Because I know, sometimes I need to be ready for a very emotional book, especially one that deals with abuse. Danika Stone uses very descriptive, sometimes bordering on flowery language.

The way that Icarus starts is interesting. The book starts you off with Tess in real time starting at a new school for her first day. And then it goes into a time lapse through her first few months at the school. It was a really effective technique that Danika Stone used because it allowed the reader to get to know Tess quickly. We picked up on facts about her, her life and her background because each of the “time lapses” stops and focuses on a different aspect of Tess or her life. Once she meets Drew and is partnered up with him in her science class, the book goes back to real time storytelling. The rest of the book is told alternating between real time and flashbacks of when Drew and Tess are children. It was interesting because you can put together kind of quickly that they knew each other as kids and they just each went by different names, but what I didn’t get was why neither of them remembered the other. I know Tess has blue hair now but Drew couldn’t have changed too much. And even if he did, Drew didn’t really remember anything about that time, and I have no idea why. It wasn’t really ever explained.

I loved the incorporation of the Greek myths into the story through Tess’ English class journal. Seeing her thoughts in her journal entries was really emotional for me. Because it was pretty much the only outlet for her emotions and feelings that she used. She is such a closed off and guarded person. You could really tell that through her relationships with Kyle, her best friend, and Drew. Some of the things with Tess’ father were hard to read. You wanted to reach out and help her so badly, but it was all part of the raw-ness and power in Icarus. This is a powerful story. I appreciated that about Danika’s writing. She conveyed the power through her words. Icarus definitely affected me as a reader and I can see a lot of people really connecting with this story. It is not your run of the mill young adult story and that is so great about it. I wasn’t crazy about the ending and I still have no idea why Drew didn’t remember parts of his past, but overall the book as a whole resonated with me.

P.S. As a side note, you may have seen this cover before on This Summer by Katelyn Duncan.

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About Danika Stone

Danika Stone is an author, artist, and educator who discovered a passion for writing fiction while in the throes of her Masters thesis. A self-declared bibliophile, Danika now writes novels for both adults (The Intaglio Series and Ctrl Z) and teens (Icarus and All the Feels). When not writing, Danika can be found hiking in the Rockies, planning grand adventures, and spending far too much time online. She lives with her husband, three sons, and a houseful of imaginary characters in a windy corner of Alberta, Canada.

The first book in Danika’s upcoming Tathagata series (Edge of Wild) was selected as a quarter-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel of the Year Award (2013). Edge of Wild (Stonehouse CA) will be released March 2016. Danika’s YA novel, All the Feels (Macmillan US), will be released June 2016.

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